Embodied Carbon 101: Basic literacy
Description
This course features an expert panel of AEC practitioners and researchers who define the embodied carbon issue and key terms and concepts—including health and sustainability implications. They provide information on data resources and rating systems available to support and execute embodied carbon decisions during design, specification, and construction. The panel also discusses how information on the embodied carbon and environmental impacts of building materials and products can be incorporated into design decisions and influence project outcomes. They use case studies to illustrate different life cycle assessment (LCA) types, structural systems, and implementation of embodied carbon design decisions through construction.
This course expires on 11/14/2026.
Learning Objectives
Define key sustainability terms including embodied carbon (EC), life cycle assessment (LCA), and environmental product declaration (EPD) and evaluate the role EC, LCA, and EPDs can play in different fields (i.e. architecture, engineering, and construction to reduce embodied environmental impacts of the building industry.
Identify and implement resources available with data on embodied carbon of building materials in order to reduce a project’s total embodied carbon.
Examine how the selection of materials for a building’s primary structural systems, building envelope and interior finishes affects the amounts of embodied carbon in buildings.
Carry out embodied carbon design decisions through specifications, procurement, and construction.
![Lori Ferriss Lori Ferriss](https://aiau.aia.org/pluginfile.php/1/local_instructors/image/768/768.jpg)
Lori Ferriss is a leader in sustainable stewardship for the built environment. As Goody Clancy’s Director of Sustainability and Climate Action, she leads research and project initiatives and advocates within the broader profession for policies and practices that advance climate action goals.
Lori plays a leadership role on projects at educational institutions that are renewing heritage campuses while advancing climate action goals. She serves as project manager and forensic specialist on numerous Goody Clancy projects, and her sustainability leadership includes incorporating life cycle assessment as an integrated step of the design process.
Within the broader design community, Lori’s leadership is shaping our understanding of building reuse as a key measure towards meeting climate change mitigation goals. At the national level, she serves as a founding member and co-chair of the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing and Historic Buildings (ZNCC), a collaborative committed to achieving a zero net carbon built environment through responsible reuse of existing buildings that was formed by APTI, AIA, RAIC, ICOMOS, and Architecture 2030. Most recently, the City of Boston asked Lori to serve on its carbon mitigation policy Technical Advisory Group. Her article for ArchitectureBoston on embodied carbon attracted significant attention both locally and nationally.
![Stephanie Carlisle Stephanie Carlisle](https://aiau.aia.org/pluginfile.php/1/local_instructors/image/769/769.jpg)
Stephanie’s work investigates the interaction between the natural and constructed environment, including embodied carbon, life cycle assessment (LCA), urban ecology, landscape performance and supply chains and toxicity of building materials. Combining a background in environmental science and architectural design, she builds bridges between research and practice, bringing data-driven analysis and topical research to complex design problems. This experience will be applied towards improving the EC3 tool as well as other carbon data initiatives at the Carbon Leadership Forum.
She most recently was a Principal at KieranTimberlake Architects where she was an environmental researcher in the firm’s interdisciplinary research group. She is also a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and a Co-Editor-In-Chief of Scenario Journal.
![Stacy Smedley Stacy Smedley](https://aiau.aia.org/pluginfile.php/1/local_instructors/image/770/770.jpg)
Stacy has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Washington, and 15 years in the architecture and construction professions. At Skanska, Stacy leads sustainable initiatives and opportunities and is considered a subject matter expert in LEED and Living Building Challenge certifications, with a passion for reducing materials toxicity and carbon emissions associated with construction. She is the co-creator of the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), an industry-wide, open-source tool for quantifying and reducing the carbon of building materials.
![Frances Yang Frances Yang](https://aiau.aia.org/pluginfile.php/1/local_instructors/image/771/771.jpg)
Frances specializes in how environmentally preferable and healthier materials contribute to whole-life sustainability performance of our built environment. She is active on the Carbon Leadership Forum, AIA Materials Knowledge Working Group, and Health Product Declaration Technical Committee. She also recently vice-chaired the USGBC LEED Materials and Resources TAG and led authorship of two recently published texts: the SEI Whole Building LCA Guide: Reference Building Structure and Strategies, and the AIA Prescription for Healthier Building Materials: A Design and Implementation Protocol. In leading Arup's Americas Sustainable Materials Consulting practice, Frances has brought healthy and low-carbon aims into the day-to-day consideration of materials alongside selection for their technical performance on a variety of buildings and infrastructure projects.